Pamela Wright was delighted when she moved into a new flat in an Edwardian conversion in Ipswich with her boyfriend of five years.

She told friends that her partner, Steve Wright, was enjoying having a garden after living in a small flat with no outside space. While she worked nights at a call centre in the town, Mr Wright, a forklift truck driver at Felixstowe docks, told her he was spending his spare time doing DIY in the flat in London Road, on the edge of the town's red light area.

Last night Ms Wright, 48, walked into her local pub, the Uncle Tom's Cabin, in tears, her life shattered by the police inquiry into the serial killings of five young prostitutes. She told the landlady, Sheila Davis, a close friend, that she had left Mr Wright in a police cell, where he is being held on suspicion of murdering the five women whose bodies were dumped within 10 miles of each other.

Ms Wright had been at work when her partner, a former steward on the QE2, was arrested at their flat at 5am yesterday.

"Work gave her a lift to the police station and she has been with the police talking to them all day before she arrived at the pub," said Ms Davis.

"She was very upset. But she said she had spoken to the police and she said she had been able to confirm that none of it was true. I think she feels quite confident now that it's not true. She feels the police believed her."

Ms Davis took her friend upstairs when she arrived, out of the way of a crowd of journalists who had arrived at the pub. "I offered her a bed for the night, but she decided to go elsewhere because of the media attention," said Ms Davis.

The small pub has been the scene of many happy events in the lives of Pamela and Steve Wright, who met five years ago in Felixstowe, the Suffolk town where he was brought up. They were close friends with the landlady and her partner Eddie Roberts, and went on holiday to Ireland with them two years ago.

Mr Wright, the son of a retired RAF corporal who lives in Felixstowe, was well known in the pub. "They are a lovely couple," said Ms Davis. "He is very, very quiet, always immaculately turned out in a polo shirt and trousers, never jeans. She is lovely."

Ms Wright used to tell her friend that she was a "golf widow" because of the amount of time Mr Wright spent at Hintlesham Hall golf club, where he won a number of trophies. Until September this year the couple were living at Bell Close, in Ipswich, in a small rented flat. They decided to move to London Road because they wanted a garden and moved in three months ago. Mr Wright worked 2pm to 10pm shifts at the docks.

Mr Wright was born on April 24 1958 in Erpingham, Norfolk. His father, Conrad, divorced Mr Wright's mother in 1977 and remarried, moving to Felixstowe almost 30 years ago. Mr Wright's father and stepmother Valerie were refusing to answer the door to reporters yesterday. His brother, Keith, said only: "I don't want to get into this."

One neighbour, who declined to be named, said Mr Wright had spent eight years as a steward on the transatlantic liner QE2 when younger.

Describing Mr Wright as "a little bit shy in conversation", the neighbour said he had come to live with his father and stepmother for about a year after the breakup of his first marriage but in recent years he had not been seen at the house. Before his retirement, the man said Mr Wright's father had been an officer in the Port of Felixstowe police and now played cricket for Suffolk over-50s.

His son, who was being questioned by police last night, lived at Stonelands House, Runnacles Way, Felixstowe, between 1997 and 2000. He is also understood to have run a pub for a time in Plumstead, south-east London. In 2002, he moved to Ipswich and met Pamela, who shares his surname.

The couple moved into their flat in Bell Close, near the Uncle Tom's Cabin pub and the bookies shop, which Mr Wright frequented. Ms Davis said of him: "He was always so quiet; he hardly ever spoke."

Police have taken CCTV footage from the pub and also, it is understood, from a CCTV camera located on London Road. It is understood medical records have also been seized by police from a doctor's surgery in Felixstowe.

A close friend of Mr Wright and his girlfriend, who gave her name only as Sally, said: "He is a very gentle man. I can't believe he would be mixed up in this. It is awful."

Last night after finishinga glass of brandy, which Ms Davis had thrust into her hand at the Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ms Wright was smuggled out by her friend to find a safe place to stay, still protesting her boyfriend's innocence.